The collaborative translation methodology: pedagogical meaning under conditions of epistemic asymmetry

Postcolonial schooling systems organised through colonial–industrial logics increasingly struggle to account for classroom life shaped by post-digital childhoods. In these contexts, teachers encounter recurring pedagogical tensions that fall outside inherited analytic categories, while their interpretive labour remains marginalised within dominant research and policy frameworks. This article introduces the Collaborative Translation Methodology (CTM) as a response to this condition. CTM is a structured, dialogic methodological framework designed to support collaborative interpretation under conditions of institutional hierarchy and epistemic asymmetry. Grounded in decolonial and dialogic traditions, CTM redistributes interpretive authority by organising how pedagogical meaning is collectively articulated and negotiated. CTM is positioned as an approach for examining how pedagogical meaning is produced in postcolonial schooling systems shaped by enduring structural asymmetries.